Unitarian Universalist Meeting House
11 Orange Street - P. O. Box 1023 Nantucket, MA 02554
(508) 228-5466
Nantucket Unitarian Universalist Newsletter - June 2017
COMMON PATHWAYS * By Reverend Linda Simmons
Multiple Identities I’ve been thinking a lot about the youth I worked with in a program funded by the Department of Labor before I went to Divinity School. Our mandate in this youth program was to assist the youth in getting GEDs and jobs. They were tough kids, full of pain and anger and loss. They were very often suffering with addiction and many other health issues. I loved them. They taught me how to show up beyond all guises.
To qualify to receive our services, the youth had to have dropped out of high school, live below pov-erty guidelines, have a learning or physical disability or a parent in jail or a documented substance abuse issue, or one of several other criteria. We had youth who were from many races, abilities and orientations, and our classroom was full of all the prejudices and stereotypes and slurs that had been used to keep most of them small and hurt and ashamed. With few exceptions, the youth used these same slurs with abandon to hurt and shame each other.
I’ll never forget one youth in particular who was transgender. She was also African American and lived in the projects and worked at MacDonald’s. She was quiet and smart and had a wonderful sense of humor, both about herself and the world. She carried herself with a calm and dignity and seemed to float above the slurs. I’ll call her Grace.
Grace studied hard and passed her GED and then I lost track of her. I called her employer and friends and no one seemed to know where she went, or they were not willing to tell me anyway.
To become a UU minister, one is asked to do a lot of reading, attend lectures and take classes about identities, sexual and otherwise. We are asked to explore our own identities as well. In one class at Harvard Divinity School called “Meaning Making,” we were asked to introduce ourselves to each other in whatever way we chose. I chose to dance. I covered my clothes with sticky notes that each had a label of a different identity on them: single mother, welfare mother, independent, woman, straight, Portuguese, American, white, strong, weak…all the labels I could think of at that time in my life-and a friend of mine, dancing with me, took note after note off of my clothing and flung them around us as we spun around the chapel our dance took place in. We whirled and whirled, while Gary drummed, the tempo ever increasing, until I was left folded in upon myself, the labels strewn around us.
Where do our labels come from? Are we the sole authors of all of our identities? Which do we con-struct and which are constructed by nature or nurture, culture or biology? And if some identities are beyond our choosing, why do we punish each other for those very ones: sexual orientation, gender, race, citizenship to name a few. And lastly and still importantly, who are we without our labels?
As I begin to plan my sabbatical to India that will take place in 2018 for the months of February and March and will be built around the topic of women and religion, I come face to face with my own and others’ identities, locations, cultures and orientations. More sticky notes of my identity become visi-ble to me as I reach beyond what I know. I lift them from my skin, noting with interest the marks they leave behind.
May the One Who Dances hold our sticky notes of identity with ease, letting them fly onto the dance floor to be retrieved or to disintegrate; as we give gratitude to those identities that dance for this sacred articulation of life.
*Nantucket is full of common pathways, some known by many, others known only by a few. Our Meeting House brings us together, traveling over many pathways,
some common, some not, as we learn to walk with each other even when the ways are unfamiliar and unmarked
JOIN US AT 10:45 A.M.
EVERY SUNDAY IN THE
HISTORIC SANCTUARY
Sunday, June 4 “Antigone’s Dilemma”
Rev. Linda Simmons
Sunday, June 11 “I & Thou”
Rev. Linda Simmons
Sunday, June 18 “Fathers, Myths and
Meanings” Rev. Linda Simmons
Sunday, June 25 “UU United Nations
Organization” Lay Led Service
Families Welcome! Religious Exploration
for Children Every Sunday
Board of Trustees Monthly Report—
June 2017
The Board of Trustees had their monthly meeting
May 16. Paul Stewart presented the first quarter
Treasurer’s Report, showing that we are in good fi-
nancial shape. He updated us on contract renewals
with Faro de Luz and Shirat Ha Yam. The Board vot-
ed to negotiate with Shirat Ha Yam for financial as-
sistance, along with use of the AR Renovation Fund,
to purchase new flooring for the Activities Room. Ma-
jor items approved were Rev. Linda Simmons’ Minis-
ter’s Sabbatical Plan and the Letter of Agreement be-
tween Linda and the Society for the upcoming year.
The Board approved the appointment of Angus Mac-
Leod to fill Mary Beth Splaine’s uncompleted term on
the South Church Preservation Fund Board of Direc-
tors, and to give our appreciation to Mary Beth for her
nine years of service on that Board. A joint meeting
between the Board of Trustees and the SCPF Direc-
tors followed. Items of discussion were the comple-
mentary roles of the two Boards and mutual concerns
for maintaining and preserving our historic building.
For example, the overcrowded conditions during last
year’s 4th of July celebration led to a new rule that
there will be no standing along the sides or sitting on
the window sills in the sanctuary. Paul proudly
passed around a panoramic color photograph of the
new sanctuary lighting, and the group discussed plans
for the May 26 Illumination Ceremony, when those
lights will be officially illuminated.
Respectfully submitted,
Val Hall President Board of Trustees [email protected]
June Calendar of Events
Monday, June 5, 5:30 pm—8:30 pm Nantucket Immigration Community Alliance Immigra-tion Resource Center—Activities Room
Tuesday, June 6, 1:30 pm—7 pm Nantucket Preservation Trust Preservation Symposi-um—Sanctuary and Hendrix Hall
(for more information and to sign up, see their website at www.nantucketpreservationsymposium.org)
Monday, June 12, 6 p.m.—8 p.m. Potluck and viewing of UUA President Debate—Activities Room (for more information see below)
Friday, June 16, 3 p.m.—9 p.m. Nantucket Book Festival events—Sanctuary (for more information visit www.nantucketbookfestival.org)
Saturday, June 17, 9 a.m.—3 p.m. Nantucket Book Festival events—Sanctuary and Hen-drix Hall (for more information visit their website at
www.nantucketbookfestival.org)
Saturday, June 17, 4:45 p.m. Maloney Wedding—Sanctuary
Saturday, June 24 McPartland/Cook Wedding—Sanctuary
Thursday, June 29, 11 am—12 pm Food Rescue Meeting—Activities Room
See You at The Meeting House!
Please join us!
Monday June 12th at 6:00pm
in the Activities Room
for a potluck and a viewing of a debate between the three candidates for Unitarian Universalist Association presidency. The election will take place at General As-
sembly in New Orleans in June this year.
There will be good food, stimulating viewing and con-versation as these extraordinary candidates discuss the
most important issues facing us as a denomination!
Docenting Report by Peter Richards
July through Labor Day, and depending on the
weather, perhaps well into the fall, our docent
team opens the doors of our beautiful Meeting
House to the public. People come from all over the
country and the world to visit our island and
many will make a point to visit our historic meet-
ing house. Key talking points include the beauti-
ful trompe l’oeil artwork, the glorious Goodrich
organ up in the choir loft, and our magnificent
Portuguese Bell. If you or someone you know
would like to join our team, please contact Peter
Richards at [email protected]. We’re always
looking for new members. Discover the “real good
feeling” of presenting our historic Meeting House.
Music Notes from Diane Lehman, Music
Director
Thanks for all your support, your comments
and your encouragement. I love to play the piano,
and it’s a pleasure to be making the music choic-
es to match whatever is going on each week. We
are so fortunate to have the Arts Council Stein-
way in the sanctuary and the dependable Chick-
ering Piano in Hendrix Hall, both of which I love
to play, providing accompaniment for your hymns
as well as theme-based music for each Sunday
service. Tim Thompson will be our tuner, making
it possible to provide the immediate attention
these fragile instruments require. It’s been a long
winter/spring and the choir has remained a fix-
ture at the Meeting House, providing a different
anthem each Sunday. Thanks to their New Eng-
land can do spirit, we continued the tradition of
group singing and rounds, harmonies and duets
as well as solos in church every week. Our mem-
bers are always eager to bring in new singers, so
if you are a singer who enjoys the company of
others while raising your own voice in song,
please consider joining us on Sundays. We have a
short practice review at 9:30am before the service
on Sundays, and we will start meeting at noon
(right after the service) to go over upcoming an-
thems. Our choir (Grace, Val, Cheryl, Phaedra,
Nancy, Polly, Cynthia, Al, Bob, and Haziel) is all
familiar to you. Returning for the summer, we
hope to see Trish, Ann, Liam, Linda and Craig.
There’s a lot to sing about! Come join us on Sun-
days and bring the sound of music into the sanc-
tuary, where the Goodrich organ awaits (with
new organ lights!). Ask Susie Jarrell to play!
Carson Cooman (Organist/Composer) will join us
for a Sunday or two, and Bill Schutt, Jordan Del-
phos, Jacob Butler, Bob Lehman, Cynthia Csa-
bay, Chelsea Remick, and Jessica Heuser will be
among those performing at some point during our
summer season. We’ll all be asked to sing the
Star Spangled Banner for the 4th of July. Bring
your friends and sing with us. There’s always a
place in the choir or on the piano bench or in
front of the congregation that appreciates won-
derful music—whether it be an instrumental, vo-
cal or a self accompanied tune. Jim Sulzer, Jacob
Butler, Chris Hanson and Paul Connor have all
provided extra music to our services this winter,
and we hope they inspire you to bring your own
voice to the Meeting House.
Nantucket Immigration Community Alliance
by Rev. Linda Simmons
The Immigration Resource Center (IRC), created
by The Nantucket Immigration Community Alli-
ance (NICA), will open on Monday, June 5th at the
UU Meeting House from 5:30-7:30pm. We have
all been working hard to put together a binder of
resources that might prove useful to recent immi-
grants. We are hoping to be good allies and pray-
ing for the courage, humility and awareness to
walk with our fears side by side.
IRC will be staffed by two people, at least one bi-
lingual. Below is the chart we have been working
with as we collect information. Three to five peo-
ple from NICA have gathered around each bubble
and formed a research team. We are gathering
our data and putting it in the form of FAQs in an
informational binder that will serve as the basis
for IRC.
It is all a work in progress. We are excited, work-
ing hard and afraid that we will not be enough or
have enough or know enough. This is where walk-
ing hand in hand makes the difference, knowing
that we are partners with so many in this effort,
that we as Anglos, recent immigrants, community
& religious leaders, workers, neighbors, is-
landers…are gathered with the good intention of
adding compassionate presence to this conversa-
tion and witness.
It is a good beginning.
Road trip to NOLA and the UU General
Assembly: Celebrating a Vote on our First
Principle and Rev Linda’s “Walk” by Susan Richards
Early Monday morning, June 19th, Paul and Lora
Stewart, Susan and Peter Richards, and Val Hall will
start their exciting journey (a road trip!) to the UU
General Assembly in New Orleans. The General As-
sembly is an inspirational annual coming together of
UU’s from all over the country (and beyond!) and well
worth attending should
you ever have the oppor-
tunity!
The main focus of our jour-
ney will be participating in
the events of the General
Assembly (June 21-25) -
workshops, talks, special services, networking, and
hopefully seeing a bit of New Orleans.
There are two events happening at this conference that
are especially meaningful for us Nantucket UUers.
The first is the calling for a vote on The First Principle.
We are a sponsoring congregation for this as we voted
in our annual mid-year all-Congregation meeting back
in July of 2015 to support this call for a vote for more
discussion on changing the wording in our First Princi-
ple from “Inherent worth and dignity of every person”
to “Inherent worth and dignity of every being”. Our second big event is the joyous “Walk” that our
wonderful Rev Linda will be taking to celebrate her 3
years of serving as our settled minister for our Congre-
gation. Rev. Linda, as does everyone new to ministry
(as she was when she joined us) entered preliminary
fellowship for the first 3 years of her ministry. During
this time, the board and committee on ministry are
required to send reviews of Rev. Linda's ministry to
the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) who re-
view them each year and send a letter saying one can
proceed to the next year of preliminary fellowship. Af-
ter 3 positive reviews and responses from the UUA,
Rev. Linda received the letter that said she was clearly
a blessing to her congregation and she was approved
for Fellowship.
At General Assembly this year, Rev. Linda, along with
many others who have achieved the honor of this sta-
tus, will be honored for this achievement. She will be
walking across the stage in the auditorium and her
name and photo flashed on the big screen. We are so
excited to be there to witness this momentous event!
You will be seeing some more reports describing our
experiences at this year’s GA in future Weathervanes
and perhaps as part of an upcoming UU service!
First Principle Project Webinar
Upcoming Webinar options - Here’s your chance to get completely updated on the
First Principle vote which will be happening at this
year’s UU General Assembly in New Orleans later in
June. Our Nantucket UU Congregation voted at our
annual mid-year meeting in July of 2015 to be one of
the sponsoring Congregations for this historic vote!
See article in this issue on UU members trip to the
General Assembly for more information!
June 10 (Saturday) at noon Eastern Standard Time
Options for joining:
From PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/
j/462446338
From Telephone: Dial: +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) or +1
646 558 8656 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 462 446 338
June 15 (Thursday) at 7pm Eastern Standard Time
Options for joining:
From PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/
j/531812853
From Telephone: Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1
408 638 0968 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 531 812 853
New Book Group
The UU Meeting House and
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
will host a book group to
read
Jodi Picoult’s novel, Small
Great Things
about racism in a small com-
munity in America.
We will meet to discuss the
book and begin our own conversation about racism
in our lives and communities.
Please join us for this important conversation and
interesting read!
All are welcome! Sign up in the AR or with Rev. Linda revlindasim-
[email protected] All Meetings are on Wednesdays from 5:00-6:30pm
July 19 St. Paul’s, Parish House, 20 Fair St pp 1-70.
July 26 St. Paul’s, pp 71-132
August 2 St. Paul’s, pp 133-197
August 9 St. Paul’s, pp, 198-271
August 16 St. Paul’s, pp 272-335
August 23 St. Paul’s, pp 336-416
August 30 St. Paul’s pp 417-end
RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION HAPPENINGS!
ACK-spress--
SUCCESS! $675 Raised by
10+ Youth
Through Art
Show
What a show of energy; beauty; and compas-
sion, by the troupe of 10+ kids who gave up their
Friday evenings to participate in UU Nantucket's
Youth Pilot Program. The results exceeded expec-
tation: by offering their hard-earned work of 8-
weeks for a charity of their choice, the children
ages 9 to 12 managed to raise $675 for the is-
land's Animal Shelter at last month's May 5th
Art Show. From lighthouses in watercolor to ab-
stract expressionism--
and even sculpture in
local clay, which they
fired themselves on
the beach--the chil-
dren wowed their at-
tendees with work
well-advanced of their
age group. Yet most
stunning of all, was
that every single child willingly gave up artwork
they loved in order to help animals. At their
"Pizza Party" celebration last week, they created
their own "giant check" which will be presented
to NISHA at this fall's Blessing of the Animals.
The kids aren't through yet, though: they've been
honing their tile "bird baths" in grout and stone-
laying techniques, with plans a-brew to install
them in public locations for all to enjoy. So save
those broken old plates, folks, and please stay
tuned!
JUNE SUNDAYS: Made of Strength--
Celebrating Heritage through Craft
Get ready for fun, in the Ancient Arts!
It's where science and sacred meet: "We are descend-
ants of the strongest," said a Lakota leader recently on
the CNN show United Shades of America. And those
words are true for each and every one of us. When poet
Maya Angelou wrote the words: "I am the hope, and
the dream, of the slave--" Angelou was calling for joy,
not to be ignorant of history; but rather in awareness
of what history's pain & endurance had, at last, re-
warded. Perhaps your OWN family tree stems from
some who nearly starved in the potato famine of Ire-
land, and gave their very last to seek Lady Liberty. Or
earlier, those in Dark-Age Europe who feared enslave-
ment or sickness at every turn. Perhaps those myster-
ies of Prehistory--like the pyramids of Egypt, or the
monoliths of Easter Island--were built by the very
hands whose DNA led up to one, magnificent YOU.
Yet across the globe one fact unites us all with the
clearest certainty: that by fire-side in frightful caves,
our earliest ancestors dreamed with hope. And that
hope, was us. So this month we'll be paying tribute to
the strongest, of whom we are legacies. Come learn the
ancient methods by which they strived; survived; all so
that at the ends of which, we might thrive.
Sunday June 4th -- FISH. Viking Casting-Rods,
Nets, & Whaling - 1300 AD
Sunday June 11th -- DRESS. Mediteranean
Queens & Warriors - 300 AD
Sunday June 18th -- BOOK. Japanese Sketch-
books; Journals; & the Illuminated Manuscript - 100
BC- 1400
Sunday June 25th -- GEM. Celtic Metalwork from
Rings to Headdress - 1300 BC
Unitarian Universalist Meeting House 11 Orange Street - P. O. Box 1023
Nantucket, MA 02554 (508) 228-5466 (Office)
www.unitarianchurchnantucket.org [email protected]
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/Nantucket-Unitarian-Universalists-75824801619/
Church Staff Rev. Linda Simmons, Minister ([email protected]) ~ Edward B. Anderson, Minister Emeritus
Diane T. Lehman, Music Director ~ Leyah Jensen, Y outh Programs Coordinator Lucretia Voigt, Office Manager ~ Ed Sullivan, Sexton ~ Chuck Gieg, Bookkeeper
Board of Trustees
Val Hall (President), Clay Twombly (Vice President), Paul Stewart (Treasurer), Peter Richards (Clerk) Cynthia Csabay, Joanna Greenfield, Christine Sanford, Michelle Whelan, Lora Stewart
Rev. Linda Simmons (Minister)
Church Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - noon Minister’s Office Hours: Tuesday, 10 a.m.– noon and by appointment
Sermons for June
June 4: “Antigone’s Dilemma” - Rev. Linda Simmons The play Antigone revolves around the dilemma that arises when the moral and the legal collide. This
sermon will look at the Marathon Bombings and the controversy surrounding Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who
lay without burial for about 27 days. What are we called to do as a people who believe in the inherent
worth and dignity of all beings, and what does this look like in our day when the moral and legal col-
lide?
June 11: “I & Thou” - Rev. Linda Simmons Martin Buber in his book I and Thou writes about how human life finds its meaningfulness in relation-
ships. In Buber’s view, all of our relationships bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is
the Eternal Thou or what Buber calls, “that [source] out of whose abundance, welling up close by, eve-
ry earthly You emerges.” This sermon will entertain the questions of self, other and god, when god is a
derivative of self and other.
June 18: “Fathers, Myths and Meaning” - Rev. Linda Simmons Perhaps the greatest role of father is to teach us all to let the Father Image go: to open us all to the ca-
pacity to accept that we are multiple, rich, contradictory, hewn from many cloths. This Father’s Day
sermon will lift up the life of Harvey Milk and his contribution to the world and our lives.
June 25: “UU United Nations Organization” - Lay Led Service
We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: ~ The inherent worth and dignity of every person. ~ Justice, equity and compassion in human relations. ~ Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. ~ A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. ~ The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. ~ The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. ~ Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.